GENERAL: I have the honor to submit
this report of the movements and service of my brigade in the battle of Bull Run, on the
Gainesville road, on the 21st instant:
Leaving my camp, one mile south of Centreville,
at 2.30 a.m. of that day, I marched at the head of your division, as ordered, with my
command in column, in the following order: The First Regiment of Ohio Volunteers, Colonel
McCook; the Second Ohio, Lieutenant-Colonel Mason; the Second New York State Militia,
Colonel Tompkins, and Captain Carlisle's battery of light artillery, six brass guns. To
Captain Carlisle's command was also attached the large Parrott gun (30-pounder), under
direction of Lieutenant Hains, of the Artillery Corps.
Proceeding slowly and carefully, preceded by
five companies of skirmishers of the First and Second Ohio, which I threw out on either
side of the road, we approached the bridge over Bull Run, beyond which the rebels were
understood to be posted and intrenched, and to within a distance, perhaps, of
three-fourths of a mile of their batteries on the other side of the stream. In obedience
to your command, on first discovery of the presence of the enemy's infantry forming into
line on the hill-side beyond the Run, I deployed my three regiments of infantry to the
left of the road, and formed them in line of battle in front of his right. Thus my command
was constituted--the left wing of our division, Colonel Sherman's brigade, coming up and
taking position to the right of the road.
After the fire had been opened by discharge of
the large Parrott gun from the center in the direction of the enemy's work, I moved my
extended line gradually forward at intervals, taking advantage of the ground, until I had
my force sheltered partly in a hollow, covered by a ridge and wood in front, and partly by
the edge of the timber lying between us and the run. Here we lay, in pursuance of your
orders, for, perhaps, two and a half or three hours, with no evidence of our nearness to
the enemy except the occasional firing of musketry by our skirmishers in the wood in
front, answered by the muskets or rifles of the enemy, to whom our presence and position
were thus indicated, with a view to distract his attention-from the approach of Colonel
Hunter's force from above and in his rear. At this time I received your notice and order
announcing that Hunter was heard from, that he had crossed, and was coming down about two
miles above us, and directing that if I saw any signs of a stampede of the enemy in front
I should make a dash with the two Ohio regiments, keeping the New York regiment in
reserve. For this movement I immediately formed and prepared. Soon after, and when, by the
firing of artillery and musketry in front at the right, it appeared that the rebels were
actively engaged in their position by our forces on the other side of the stream, I
received your order to extend my line still farther to the left, sending forward Colonel
McCook's regiment to feel the battery of the enemy, which was ascertained to be on the
hill covering the ford, half a mile below the bridge, and supporting him with my two other
regiments. This was immediately done. Colonel McCook advanced in that direction along the
road, which we found to be a narrow track through a pine wood, thick and close with
undergrowth, and flanked on either side by ambuscades of brush-work, which were now,
however, abandoned. Reaching the head of this narrow road where it opened upon the stream,
Colonel McCook found the battery to be a strong earthwork immediately opposite, mounted
with at least four heavy guns, and commanding the outlet from the wood. An open space of
hollow ground lay between, with a corn-field to the left, the direct distance across to
the enemy's battery being about three hundred and fifty yards. Behind this battery, and
supporting it, were discovered some four regiments of the rebel troops, while rifle-pits
were seen directly in front of it. The First Regiment was then deployed to the left in the
edge of the woods and into the corn-field, one company (Captain Kell's) being thrown
forward towards the run up to within perhaps twenty yards of the battery.
While this was done I advanced the Second Ohio,
followed by the Second New York, toward the head of the road, in supporting distance from
the First Ohio, Lieutenant-Colonel Mason's regiment filing also to the left. Receiving
Colonel McCook's report of the battery, and that it would be impossible to turn it with
any force we had, I immediately dispatched a message to the center to bring up some pieces
of artillery, to engage the enemy from the head of the road. In the mean time the enemy,
discovering our presence and position in the woods, and evidently having the exact range
of the road we were occupying, opened on us with a heavy fire of shells and round and
grape shot. To avoid the effect of this as much as possible, I ordered the men to fall
back into the woods on each side of the road, and was presently re-enforced by two guns of
Ayres' battery, under Lieutenant Ransom, which passed to the head of the road. A brisk
cannonading was then opened, but a very unequal one, on account of the superior force and
metal of the enemy. While this continued, I left my horse and passed through the woods,
and remained some time by our guns, to be satisfied whether we were making any impression
on the enemy's work. I soon found that it was not thus to be carried, and such also was
the opinion of the officer in charge of the guns. Retiring, I found that the most of my
two regiments in the rear had fallen back out of range of the hot and constant fire of the
enemy's cannon, against which they had nothing to oppose. The suffering from this fire was
principally with the Second New York, as they were in the line where most of the shell and
shots fell that passed over the heads of the Second Ohio.
Taking with me two companies of the Second
Ohio, which were yet in the woods maintaining their position, I returned to cover, and
brought away Ransom's guns. It was just at this place and point of time that you visited
yourself the position we were leaving. I must not omit to speak with commendation of the
admirable manner in which these guns of ours were handled and served by the officers and
men having them in charge; and I may notice the fact also that, as we were withdrawing
from this point, we saw another heavy train of the enemy's guns arrive and move up the
stream on the other side of their battery with which we had been engaged along what we
supposed to be the road from Manassas towards where the battle was raging with our troops
on the right.
My three regiments being all called in, then
returned and rested in good order at the center of the front, near the turnpike. Here I
was informed by Colonel McCook that you had crossed the run above with other portions of
our division, and left with him an order for me to remain with my infantry in that
position supporting Carlisle's battery, which was posted close to the road on the right.
This was about 1 o'clock p.m. Captain Carlisle, while we thus rested, was playing with
much apparent effect upon the enemy's works across the run with his two rifled pieces, as
was also Lieutenant Hains with the large Parrott gun. Soon after, having successive and
cheering reports, confirmed by what we could observe, of the success of our Army on the
other side of the run, I discovered that bodies of the enemy were in motion, probably
retreating to their right. To scatter these and hasten their flight I ordered into the
road toward the bridge the two rifled guns, and had several rounds fired, with manifest
severe effect. This, however, drew from the enemy's batteries again a warm and quick fire
of shell and with rifled cannon on our position in the road, which continued afterwards
and with little intermission, with loss of some lives again in my New York regiment, until
the close of the fight.
While this was going on, Captain Alexander, of
the Engineer Corps, brought up the company of pioneers and axmen, which, with its officers
and sixty men, had been entirely detailed from the regiments of my brigade, to open a
communication over the bridge and through the heavy abatis which obstructed the passage of
troops on our front beyond the run. To support him while thus engaged, I brought and
placed on the road towards the bridge McCook's and Tompkins' regiments, detailing also and
sending forward to the bridge a company of the Second New Yorkers, to cover the rear while
cutting through the enemy's abatis. A second company from Lieutenant-Colonel Mason's
command was also brought forward with axes afterwards, to aid in clearing the
obstructions, and thus in a short time Captain Alexander succeeded in opening a passage.
Captain Carlisle's battery was now posted on
the hill-side in the open field to the left of the road toward the bridge. Very soon
after, some reverse of fortune appearing to have taken place with our troops on the other
side, who were falling back up the run, it was discovered and reported to me that a large
body of the enemy had passed over the stream below the bridge, and were advancing through
a wood in the low grounds at our left, with an evident purpose to flank us. To intercept
this movement, I ordered forward into the road still lower down two of Carlisle's brass
howitzers, a few rounds from which, quickly served, drove the rebels from the wood and
back to the other side of the stream. It was not long after this that the unpleasant
intelligence came of our Army being in retreat from the front across the ford above, and
the order was given to fall back on Centreville. The retreat of my brigade, being now in
the rear of our division, was conducted in the reverse order of our march in the morning,
the Second New York moving first, and being followed by the Second Ohio and First Ohio,
the two latter regiments preserving their lines in good degree, rallying together and
arriving at Centreville with closed ranks, and sharing comparatively little in the panic
which characterized so painfully that retreat, and which seemed to me to be occasioned
more by the fears of frightened teamsters, and of hurrying and excited civilians (who
ought never to have been there), than even by the needless disorder and want of discipline
of straggling soldiers.
Near the house which was occupied as a hospital
for the wounded, about a mile from the battle-ground, a dashing charge was made upon the
retreating column by a body of secession cavalry, which was gallantly repelled, and
principally by two companies of the Second Ohio, with loss on both sides. Here also, in
this attack, occurred some of the casualties to the Second New York Regiment. From this
point to Centreville a portion of the First Ohio was detailed, under command of
Lieutenant-Colonel Parrott, and acted efficiently as a rear guard, covering the retreat.
Arrived at Centreville, I halted the two Ohio
regiments on the hill, and proceeded to call on General McDowell, whom I found engaged in
forming the reserve of the Army and other troops in line of battle to meet an expected
attack that night of the enemy at that point. I offered him our services, premising,
however, that unfed and weary troops, who had been seventeen hours on the march and
battle-field, might not be very effective, unless it were to be posted as a reserve in
case of later emergency. General McDowell directed me to take them to the foot of the
hill, there to stop and encamp. This I did, establishing the two regiments together in the
wood to the west of the turnpike. After resting here about two hours, I was notified that
your division, with the rest of the forces under the general commanding, were leaving
Centreville, and received your order to fall back on Washington. I took the route by
Fairfax Court-House, and thence across to Vienna, arriving at the latter place at 3.30
a.m. of the 22d, and there resting the troops for two hours in an open field. During the
march we did what was possible to cover the rear of the scattered column then on the road.
Two miles, or less, this side of Vienna,
Colonel McCook, with the main body of his regiment, turned upon the road leading to the
Chain Bridge over the Potomac, thinking it might be a better way, and at the same time
afford by the presence of a large and organized body protection to any stragglers that
might have taken that route. Lieutenant-Colonel Mason, with the Second Ohio, marched in by
the way of Falls Church and Camp Upton.
The return of the Ohio regiments to Washington
was made necessary by the fact that, their term of service having expired, they are at
once to be sent home to be mustered out of service.
Not having been able to obtain yet complete or
satisfactory returns of all the casualties in the battle in the different corps of my
brigade, I shall reserve the list of them for a separate report, which I will furnish as
soon as practicable.